Global demand for diamond wire used to slice solar ingots and sapphire ingots is expected to continue growing in 2018, according to China-based research organizations.
Diamond wire makers in China, including Yangling Metron New Material, Changsha Dialine New Material Sci&Tech, and Giga Diamond Materials (set up by Taiwan-based PV conductive paste maker Giga Solar Materials) are expanding production capacities.
Global diamond wire annual production capacity - including that of Japan-based Asahi Diamond Industrial and ALMT, and US-based Diamond Materials Tech - is less than 20 billion meters at present, of which China-based makers account for about 70%. Global demand in 2020 is forecast at 56.7 billion meters.
Solar poly-Si ingot slicing consumes more diamond wire saws than mono-Si ones, and therefore diamond wire saws account for a larger portion of total production cost for poly-Si wafers than for mono-Si ones.
In China, diamond wire pricing has dropped from CNY220 (US$33.0)/km in third-quarter 2017 - when there were serious shortages - to about CNY200/km currently, while prices for Japan-produced diamond wire have slipped from CNY250-260/km to about CNY220/km in the same period.
Global demand for diamond wire (billion meters) | ||||
Segment | 2017 | 2018 | Y/Y | Growth in 2019, 2020 |
Solar mono-Si wafer | 8.4 | 12.3 | 46.4% | 30% |
Solar poly-Si wafer | 7.6 | 18.7 | 146.1% | 33% |
Sapphire wafer | 1.1 | 1.3 | 18.2% | 7.5% |
Source: China-based research organizations, compiled by Digitimes, January 2018
